The Hands-Off Mode has been a feature of Elipse E3 since its version 4.5 Build 228. It allows opening the project files (.PRJ and .LIB) on hands-off mode, which allows synchronizing both servers automatically via DFS (Distributed File System).
Some applications using Hot-Standby with auto-settings (creating/changing/saving objects at runtime) need to propagate the PRJ changes to the computer in standby. For these cases (and many others), the solution is using the DFS (Distributed File System), a Windows Server feature that allows mirroring two folders in two different machines. Therefore, when the PRJ is saved in a computer, the DFS is responsible for copying the file automatically to a standby server.
To enable the Hands-Off Mode, you must create the key below (the HandsOffMode key is a DWord):
When this mode is on, the .PRJ and .LIB files are loaded but not bound (Elipse E3 will copy the files in the Temp folder and access them only from this file, which will leave the original ones unbound). This allows the files synchronism feature (DFS) to copy the modified files from Hot to Standby, as well as the other way around.
When this mode is on, the procedures for opening the .PRJ and .LIB files are:
- The PRJ or LIB file is copied to the user’s Temp folder. The name of the generated file is “EFS_{clsid}.tmp“.
- The temporary file opens in direct mode (that is, without creating a snapshot), and is kept open by E3 while is being used.
In E3 logs, you will be able to notice the EFS modules had been logged. For example:
172013-11-20 15:52:27.22299603076EFSHandsOffMode: Temp file ‘C:\Windows\TEMP\EFS_{06632077-BAB3-4193-A689-110B63A29CF7}.tmp’ was deleted14
182013-11-20 15:52:27.24499603076EFSHandsOffMode: Temp file ‘C:\Windows\TEMP\EFS_{49656153-0FAF-4656-87B1-B118D237EEA5}.tmp’ created from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Elipse Software\Elipse E3\Gallery\SymbolFactory.prj’14
The temporary files are deleted from Temp folder only in two situations:
- At the first time a file opens on Hands-Off Mode and a new process is executed (before the file opens, it will attempt to erase the EFS_*.tmp files that are in Temp folder); and
- Whenever a file opens on Hands-Off Mode, as long as it has been more than 60 seconds from the last time the Temp folder was emptied.
Therefore, you should expect a few files left in the Temp folder after the E3 process has closed. Usually, these files will be deleted the next time you run Elipse E3.
Requirements for using Hands-Off Mode:
- Elipse E3 or Elipse Power version 4.5 build 228 or higher installed.
- DFS (Distributed File System) properly installed and working.
- Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE[\Wow6432Node]\Elipse Software\EFS\HandsOffMode = 1.
